I picked this up today, mostly so I could get Battlefront for really cheap. $50 for this (normal price up here) and only $20 for battlefront, regularly $50. I've got a sealed box if anyone wants to buy one

I was just waiting for a $10 price decrease. It was $49 for BAttlefront when it first came out, but only on the first day. Since then it's been $59 plus our horrendous taxes, so I just waited and waited for a mark down. To get it for $19 is fantastic IMO. I sure didn't need both games at once, I don't play games that often. But the deal was just too good for now. It'll be quite a while before Battlefront hits the $19 price mark.

Well on a whim I rented REpublic Commando the other night and began playing it before I buy it on PC. So far, my review's a mixed feeling on the game. If this is how First Person Shooters are going though, count me as disappointed then.

-AI in this game's surprisingly decent... Enemies duck and dodge, they hide, and in general they're smarter than in most games. Far superior to HALO 1 or 2, and generally superior to most FPS games I think, but the clones still do some dumb **** from time to time which is frustrating... Running ahead of you, getting stuck places, running in front of you during a firefight. AI's just not quite up to par with other games like Call of Duty yet.

-Levels are nicely designed and make sense, but they're incredibly linear which is a step backwards. There's few "side halls" that are dead ends and things, and to me those are the little details that can make a game more real in the mind of the gamer. For instance, Dark Forces would put a latrine as a side room in the middle of a base. Why? Because in real life Stormtroopers need to take a piss like the rest of us and it would exist...

Some levels have blocked off routes, namely the Acclamator Class Destroyer level, and that's good, but the game lacked many accessible "dead ends" which would've greatly helped it feel more gritty and real. The levels are designed well though and don't feel illogical or unrealistic with high ledges that you can't reach but somehow an enemy is on it... That kinda crap.

-The graphics are fine... I'm not fond of the game sort of taking liberties with alien design though. They have Trandoshans as almost a cross between apes and lizards rather than the thin look Bossk implied to us in ESB, and so they basically rewrote movie canon for their own use. That irks me and it's simply laziness on the part of the game designers to make a new enemy or to make the Trandoshans unique/interesting as they are rather than just change their physics all together.

Another enemy I found annoying that they changed is the Geonosians. They don't look like ugly, thin, frail bugs... Instead the game beefed them up graphically speaking, and that's unnecessary.

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.

Beyond that, the graphics of the game are great, gritty, realistic... If the enemies were too the game's visuals would be flawless I think.

-Enemies TOO TOUGH!!! I don't know what the hell the game developers were thinking, but they made every enemy damn near impossible to kill. Absolutely stupid.

Now, I'm a gamer so this isn't just me picking the game apart and saying, "Wah! This is too hard!" or anything. Far from it... I like difficulty.

The proplem is they made every enemy unrealistically difficult to kill. The movies show how tough something is to destroy and this game just does NO justice to the films. Should a Trandoshan (unarmored and with only knives) be as tough to kill as a heavily armored person is in another more well done FPS? I don't think so.

The Super Battledroids should be tougher to destroy than battledroids, but should they take a Clone emptying 3 or 4 clips before he actually kills one? WTF!? Stupid... In the movie they'd take 10 shots at most... AT MOST! In the game you're practically dry on ammo before one's dead and it's ripped you a new one in the process.

Battledroids even take more than 2 shots sometimes. What's up with that? In the movie they drop like flies, so I think the game developers should've just had more attack you rather than make them tougher (not to mention they too are not like the the films but rather they look black and tough to see... Where's red or cream color for them? Why not give them "Commanders" that when you shoot an OOM-9 one the others flee or become less coordinated, ya know? Think Developers, think!).

The SBD's and Trandoshans are truly the last straw, but then the spider droid is like fighting a huge tank instead of it being nothing more than just another larger/tougher droid. It's super tough and only anti-armor can take it out... Silliness, and the films showed otherwise so just set the characters up like the films and leave it at that, don't get creative!

-Dialogue/Sound... I put dialogue first because it is the most noticeable sound actually. And it's funny and interesting to hear... Lots of static-filled conversation, characters chattering, etc... Sound effects are good and realistic... It's everything you'd expect from a SW game so I'm content there.

-Gameplay/Controls... Very good layout, and even with all the commands and such the X-Box controller made it relatively simple. It's no Tom Clancy game though, I'll say that. It's nowhere near the complexity of a Ghost REcon or Rainbow Six... That sort of sucks actually given that both really would make for a great Star Wars game if they were to mimic that style.

Unfortunately, Rep. Commando is more an improvement on HALO than it is an attempt at a real squad-based combat shooter like Ghost Recon. I think the latter (with more realistic enemies) would've been greatly superior. That's me though. To me, HALO's nothing but a watered down game that doesn't revolutionize FPS gaming in the slightest. If anything it dumbs it down for a broader audience is all.

Rep. Commando improves on the ideas HALO sets forth, but with Ghost Recon available to mimic I think you go with more the older crowd than trying to make everyone happy.

-Storyline... Great really. Very interesting, but very low on cutscenes to advance it. I love animations and cutscenes to keep a story cohesive so I'd label that a criticism, but these Clones missions are great and lead you through the Clone Wars well enough. This game could just do more to expand upon that... Show in elaborate scenes WHY you're doing what you're doing, etc...

And with that, I'll wrap up the review...

It's an ok game... Good in its own ways, but it's not the "blockbuster" I would've expected it to be... It didn't take Star Wars FPS gaming to a whole new level, and it really didnt' even try to make itself fit firmly into the EU other than its storyline is good enough that it fits in the time between AOTC and ROTS.

I'd say that this is a rent it and wait for a decrease in price at best... I'll likely do just that because I'm thinking replay on this is gonna be minimal.

I'm not happy with the game entirely, and a lot of my anger revolves around how they made the enemies A) not look like they do in the films established canon, and B) the enemies are EXTRAORDINARILY difficult to fight. Not to the point that the game is impossible, but to the point that I find the game to be a nuisance since you should be just breezing through some areas. There's instaces where more enemies rather than stronger enemies would be the better balance to the game, rather than the other way around.

The game's designers were trying tooooooo hard to cater to the "HALO" crowd. To me, trying to make 15 year old boys happy (sorry to the adults who do like HALO, I'm not trying to be offensive but it's pretty well known that there's a difference in crowds between those who like Call of Duty or Ghost REcon, and then those who like HALO) over trying to make a game that does the Star Wars films justice.

To me this is a little like Castle Wolfenstein... Beefing up Germans and things to make a WW2 shooter when WW2 itself should give you plenty of material to make a game with on your own... Though RtCW wasn't a bad game and had a better balance to it than Rep Commando does.

That's my wrap on this... I'm gonna be holding off on buying it now. Glad I didn't go bust my ass upgrading my PC to get a copy (though I feel sure it plays better on PC where control is more fluid, fast, and accurate) of Republic Commando though. It's not all it boasts in my book, and it'llb e something I wind up buying just because I like a full library of SW video games on hand.

I beat the game earlier this evening. A very abrupt ending but one that definitely leads straight away into Episode III. A minor cutscene at the end, but like I said it was cut incredibly short and the game overall lacked cutscenes.

Anyway, my opinion basically stands as it was...

So my views again, more briefly:

-Lack of cutscenes hurts story and the game overall

-Enemies being made incredibly hard throws the "realism" intent of the game's designers out the window. You can't claim you went for realism and make every alien require a clip full of ammo to die, or rockets/anti-armor to just take out a SBD. Keep it like the film god dammit! SBD's just took 5 - 10 shots instead of 2 - 3 shots like a regular BD!

-Game Controls are nothing special, but the command function is simple and effective. It combines features in games like Conflict Desert Storm with a FPS which worked well. Sucks they didn't keep realism again.

-Level design/layout was pretty good... Could've stood having a few dead-ends though, and areas to explore. There were many more areas with "locked" doors though, especially in the Kashyyyk levels. Best of the game.

-Character designs strayed from "real"... IE: the films have established what a spider droid looks like so animate one exactly like the films. The films established what Geonosians look like, so animate them as such. The films established Trandoshans as well so don't try "beefing them up". Just go with what's established if you want actual "realism" within the game.

-Not really any puzzles... I like puzzles in a game, this didn't have that.

-Ducking and Crouching are useless practically. Very little use and that sucks. I like that dynamic of jumping up on a ledge rather than taking steps. Not that you need "Force Jump" powers, just normal jumping ability or even the added ability to climb obstructions or hop them perhaps??

-Weaker enemies = more of them... I like shooting more people and feeling overwhelmed rather than fighting "super" enemies. It's a better aspect of FPS gaming I think and keeps more with the enemies in the prequals too... There's SOME of this in Rep Commando but not a lot, and it's watered down due to the intense strength the designers gave to the characters. Very dumb.

-A Jetpack feature like in Bounty Hunter could've gone a long way. Just a thought, and Clone Commando's seem like they maybe would use that technology if it were available.

-AI is ok... It's not great, it's not revolutionary to the FPS genre, but it is ok. I did find that enemies did dumb **** often though. Even a bodyguard of Greivous gets stuck in this one part and was easy to just knife to death. Your own teammates do dumb **** too though, and run headlong into rooms without YOUR command to do so.

Nice training.

-Short... The game itself is short. Very short... It could've really gone on a lot longer. The ghost ship level was neat but there could've been a lot more to this game.

-Graphically the game is visually great overall. No gripes whatsoever. Explosions are intense, lots of cool features, lots of colors in the flora and fauna of worlds (Kashyyyk I'm lookin gat you), and each environment conveyed itself well... Could've used more interactive features like shooting panels off walls and whatnot though.

-Weaponry was cool. The Jedi Knight series has lost track of making blaster weapons "fun", but RC had good weapons and while the enemies were too tough the weapons were still fun if not a little awkwardly designed (the rocket launcher was stupid, and a half-assed machine gun that Trandoshans used sucks).

-No vehicles... minor, but could've been neat if you really got into something like an AT-XT with a teammate and trashed some enemies, or perhaps use a speederbike to traverse some terrain...

-And did I mention the enemies are WAY too tough. Not all mind you, but Geonosians taking 2 shots? Come on these guys are cannon fodder in the movie!

And the Super Battledroid is possibly the most annoying thing in the whole game. Incredibly frequent throughout the game, and a droid that should only take like 20 shots from the basic Clone rifle suddenly now takes a bunch of heavy weapons to kill. bull****! Beyond him though are the Trandoshan and Geonosian Elites and Trandoshan Berzerkers... Stupid ideas, stupid abilities... Sucked ASS. Every bit of realism this game acheived went out the window because the game developers (again) catered to the HALO crowd instead of keeping Star Wars as Star Wars.

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, and easily this game's greatest downfall.

Still, with all that, it was fun to play through... It wasn't terribly hard actually, or challenging, and when it was a little hard it was mroe annoyingly hard than actually entertainingly difficult.

I won't be buying this for a while now... The gamer rag reviews on this game just show me once more than gamer rags DON'T know **** about gaming and cater more to a child's mindset. They aim more towards the 15 year old on X-Box live cussing at you while you play him in Battlefront I think.

I expected more given what was being touted about this.

Glad I beat it on a rental (not even trying real hard at first) so I don't feel compelled to buy it and finish it then.

I wish I saw your review before buying this game. Just about everything you said is true. It also could have used a larger selection of enemies. The game is WAAAAYYYYY too short. I think they were going on the premise that people would just buy this to play on X-box live and online communities (Like Halo).

What really amazes me, is for how long this game has been in the making, to have it come out and lack content is sad.

I wasted $50 bucks and I feel pretty stupid for it. I'll try it online tonight and see if that's any better.

My buddy just gave me a copy of this game for the X-Box. I had played the demo and really liked it, more so than either of the Battlefront when I tried them. I'm not a huge gamer, so it will remain to be seen if I'm as picky about it whenever I start playing it.

There's flaws to the game and lots of qualities too... In short it's far from perfect for its time (IE: It's no "Jedi Knight" or "Dark Forces") but it's a good run through kind of game with a little replay value too.

Myself I felt that the drawbacks were the lack of realism in enemies (SBD's requiring a practically artillery sized weapon to bring them down, Geonosians, etc.), and I feel the command system was too linnear and "obvious" for my tastes with little room for actual leadership decisions. AI isn't the best but not the worst, graphics and level design are INCREDIBLE, difficulty is fair to good. It's not bad.

I just NOW bought it in the last 6 months actually. I'd rented it and beat it so I refused to buy it at that point but I found a copy used for less than $20 and jumped on the purchase (I think it was like $15).

It's a game that grew on me, I must say. My initial impressions were down on it but I changed my tune after a while.

After reading the books, the game means a lot more to me. I think you really didn't make any decisions at all, but it was nice to be able to disengage covering fire and such or get your guys out of the way. Most games I've played don't give you that ability and it makes 2+ player levels terrible IMO. That Vjun level in Jedi Academy is the worst ever. RC really avoided some of those difficulties. Enemies are unbelievable stubborn, but with melee capabilities, I did OK. There were some great tactical points in the game which made me actually think about what I was doing instead of just point and click, so I really do appreciate this as an FPS. Have fun playing and let us know what happens!

I merged your question into the Republic Commando video game discussion just to help get you a better answer I think. You originally posted it in the EU discussion for REp Commando which will certainly have non-gamers talking in it, but here it'll maybe continue the talkon this game. I'll give my own thoughts on the command structure...

For what I got out of it, it's not nearly as realistic as Rainbow Six (or other clancy games). The command system is simpler, and you can only order your commandoes into specific patterns outlined and highlighted in combat areas in the game. It's a little hard to explain really without playing it. It's a completely unique command structure to most games though. If I had to pick better, I think the "Conflict" series and Full Spectrum Warrior series are better laid out games for commanding units like this. More "free".

I personally love the Full Spectrum Warrior series... Or for a WW2 feel, Brothers in Arms. These are fantastic squad-based shooters that the SW genre could learn from. If you got a SW shooter that mimiced Brothers in Arms in every way but with a better, more comprehensive story and a little more freedom, I think I'd be in gaming heaven.

Commando's not bad, so don't get me wrong, it just isn't up there with the others in this new offshoot gaming genre I think. It's fun, but don't look to it for a "realistic" experience, if that makes any sense. It's much more linear in how you have to set up your Squad, and not very free unfortunately. It'd be a much better game if it were actually.